Well...

It's been a while. I think that it's time to start posting again. Since Japan I've been doing mostly local travel. The last 2 trips have been to (relatively) local National parks. Bryce Canyon and Yosemite. I'll be posting on those soon.

I'll also be covering a bit of practice with my D70s. I haven't been happy with the exposures that I've been getting lately. In an article (I forget where I read it) it was suggested that I take a series of exposures to see what my camera does with the light. Think of it as looking at the sensors output and then calibrating it. Tomorrow I'll run down to the Harbor and take a look at the Surprise. The Surprise is the ship From Master and Commander. It's docked next to the Star of India. Should be interesting.

Well that should do it for now. I'll leave you with this shot from the zoo.

End of the US Open

*sigh* What a let down.

The traffic was actually better than normal most days. So I decided to stop the project on Thursday due to uninteresting photos. I gotta hand it to the US Open planners. They did a fantastic job with the traffic up here. At the stadium...I'm not so sure. Traffic in Mission valley is dicey at best. Still, they've had lots of practice at Qualcomm.

The Open was pretty good though. Tied on the last shot of regulation play. Followed by another 18 holes tied at the end (deja vu). Followed by a sudden death playoff.

Congratulations to Tiger Woods and Rocco Mediate for a fantastic series of Golf.

Day 3/4

Today is the first day of the Qualifying rounds. Traffic around Qualcomm is pretty bad according to the radio. Traffic on the freeway coming in was moderate. Although the bus route into La Jolla (Yes the buses go down Ardath rd La Jolla Pkwy) was pretty bad. It was backed up down the ramps almost to the I-52 when I passed by.

I do have some photos of the trip in and will post them tonight.

I decided to go in via Gilman drive. Gilman was pretty clear. Lots more bicycles today. And then I went up La Jolla Village Dr/ N.Torrey Pines Rd.

That was more what I expected. Phil and Tiger were already on the course when I went in. So I expect traffic through there was a lot heavier a couple of hours earlier.

The other thing I noticed was SDPD. They're all over the place. Writing tickets and towing cars. So if you plan on being in the area, be alert and obey ALL of the signs. Getting towed is expensive and the nearest yard is over by Miramar.

Day 2/3

So it's Wednesday lunch. Things are starting to ramp up a bit. Traffic still isn't above the normal variation... yet. Although the signs are there that it's going to be worse. I'm starting to see a lot more folks wandering off towards the side streets and the Detour signs are starting to appear.

Starting tomorrow I'll be biking in part way to avoid the worst of the expected build ups. So far I have to say "Good Job" the the traffic planners. We'll see how well they did in the next 2 days :)

US Open Day 0 and Day 1

Since I work in Torrey Pines I thought it might be a fun (or at least amusing to me) idea to chronicle how the US Open affects my daily commute. What I did was to walk around last Friday and take pictures around the outside of the Golf course at 6pm. Then each day I'll take pictures of my commute and post the interesting ones with commentary about the drive.

Day 0 (Friday)



The first thing I noticed was all of the myriad signs that have appeared in the last few days. Everything from Extreme delay warnings and No Parking to Shuttle direction signs.

For some reason traffic was extremely light Friday.



Day 1 (Monday)

Monday was pretty light. I managed to get to work with no problems. I didn't even see any buses.



And the evening commute was light as well...or at least no worse than normal :)



This morning I didn't take any photos. The Commute and traffic were pretty normal. The only difference was the half dozen or so large buses on I-52.

Now for the bad news.

The tourists are here. On my way out to lunch I saw 4 near accidents and at least 10 major traffic violations before I got to UCSD. And to think I want to ride my bike in with this traffic....

What I'm planning

I really didn't set out to run a permanent Blog. But I decided that I'll use this as a pace to show off my photography and special events. I'm guessing that anyone who's read this realizes that I'm also Koryu Bugeisha.

For those who don't understand the term. Koryu Bugeisha roughly translates as Traditional warfare practitioner. More simply, trainee Samurai.

So expect to see posts on events for the Jikishin Kai. (I'd also expect posts on other subjects as well)

And I haven't forgotten the lessons learned post :)

Hotel Review

At long last we get to our promised review of our accommodation's. These notes are taken from the complaints input of my fellow travelers. But they are filtered through me. So on to the data.

Fujita Hotel
city: Kyoto

Good:

Location. Right next to the river. Short walk from several major sites.
Great staff.
Best breakfast of any of the hotels we were at.
Nice rooms. Even with 3 shoehorned in.

Bad:

No internet in the rooms (I know...engineers. Still, everyone likes to check email) Computers are in the lobby - 2 - at 1000 yen for 10 minutes.
2 outlets in the room. And 1 was for the TV.
1000 yen TV cards
1 KEY per room (that's right, no cards)

Emus Business Hotel
Shin-Fuji

Good:

Price! about $50 a night. Cash only though.
Free wireless
Rooms were good for the price. Think Motel 6.
Roof access (view of Mt Fuji)

Bad:

Long walk from the station (not my complaint) and signs were in katakana.
1 Room smelled smoky (cigarettes)
Owner spoke no english (not a problem for us but...)

Takayama Best Western
Takayama

Good:

Great location
Good staff
Good Breakfast

Bad:

Spendy . Well over $100 each a night.
No exchange service (but post office nearby)
Staff spoke little/no english (Yes, I know this is Japan. Still, this is a tourist area)

Comfort Inn Hotel
Toyama

Good:

Location. Close to station.
Clean.
Staff (remembered us and our room numbers right away)

Bad:

1 card per room. With room number on it. (I mean it wasn't a disposable card)
Small rooms.
Pillows were horrible. Weird things about an inch thick...with instructions on how to use them. Still, for some unknown reason Mark liked them.
No exchange service. (in a business hotel? Come on...)

Manten Kanzawa
Kanazawa

Good:

Ummmm.....the Japanese bath on the second floor.
Good staff.

Bad:

Tiny rooms.
No exchange
Expensive breakfast...and POWDERED EGGS for gods sake.
Bit of a walk from the station

Rihga Royal
Kyoto

Good:

Best rooms. Especially at the price :)
Great Staff
Shuttle bus
Biggest tubs
Great location for travelers. (right next to the station)
Really good restaurant (Top of Kyoto) according to Jo. But expensive.

Bad:

1000 yen fee for most services (internet, pool, hot tub, etc...) I think they keep the room cost low but they do it by nickel and dimeing you for services.

So the verdicts are:

Best hotel - Rihga Royal
Best for price - Emus (really)
Stay away from - Manten

Could be better still - Fujita. And all it needs is a bit of moderizing. Like more outlets, wireless access, and keycard doorlocks. Other than that it was great.

So there you have it. That's the quick rundown on the hotels. We all liked the Rihga best. And I'd surely stay there again. If I wanted to be closer to the center of the city I'd probably use the Fujita again. But since I like to take day trips out of the station I prefer the Rihga.

Next post will be lessons learned - 2008 edition.